The majority of respondents to a recent survey say yes. They have a formal student intern program at their companies, and the majority believes the program contributes to the long-term development of the workforce.

As expected, larger firms are more likely to have intern programs: Respondents who report they have a program work in firms with 4,400 employees on average, while those without interns have about 1,600 on the payroll. But having interns isn’t merely an outgrowth of company size: Firms that believe in interns give high priority to finding quality candidates, and feel they currently have a labor shortage.

Those having a hard time finding quality workers value interns. General college recruiting – as opposed to internship programs, specifically – only ranks in the middle of the pack of potential sources for candidate quality.

Because those who are content with their college recruiting programs also tend to be satisfied with the results of job fairs and online postings at sites such as CollegeRecruiter.com (the least targeted and highest volume of the sourcing methods measured), it may be that the firms that don’t feel the pinch for college candidates are valuing quantity over quality.

Source: Workforce Data Insights is produced by Veritude and based on findings of a national survey of 119 executives (32% C-level and 32%-VP) representing a mix of public and private companies in 18 different industries. Veritude provides strategic human resources and serves clients throughout the U.S. and Canada. Veritude is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fidelity Investments. For more information about Workforce Data Insights, please visit www.veritude.com.